Jun. 19, 2013

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If Keith Johnson has his way, Petbrosia will soon be known for more than selling premium dog and cat food. The startup will become a brand people associate with healthy pets, and a resource where owners can meet, learn and network.

Think of it as a Starbucks for dog and cat owners.

That’s why Johnson, who launched Petbrosia a year ago, recently opened a nutrition and education center in Hyde Park Square under the Petbrosia brand. The location is an office for Johnson and his Cincinnati employees, but can also quickly transform into social space for gatherings, meetings and seminars. Petbrosia also has office space at Cintrifuse and in Dayton’s The Entrepreneurs Center.

The Hyde Park location is just one component to keeping Petbrosia, an e-commerce company that started taking pet food orders in March, on a growth trajectory. Johnson is raising what he hopes will be an $800,000 seed round. He’s secured about $385,000 to date, including $200,000 from Ohio Third Frontier. He’s meeting with West Coast investors later this month.

The funding will allow Petbrosia to intensify its marketing efforts and increase staffing. The startup currently includes six full-time employees, three interns, contractors and will add a Venture for America fellow later this summer.

Johnson, 41, is an engineer with almost 20 years of consumer branding experience. In 2011, he earned an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and drove to Chicago and back every Saturday for three years while working full time. The 90 hours a week he spends now on building Petbrosia aren’t anything new.

Johnson recently talked to the Enquirer about Petbrosia’s strategy, growth and goal to transform the e-commerce experience.

TELL ME HOW Petbrosia differentiates itself from other players in the high-end pet food market.

What really makes us different is the ability to customize. Go online, tell us about your pet, and we have proprietary algorithms, patent pending, that help you understand where your pet should be in the nutritional profile. We’re able to create the food to fit that profile.

WHAT ARE THE key measurements you have been tracking since you launched?

The number of orders is the key thing that external investors, and potential investors, are watching to see traction. We’ve underspent in terms of the amount of marketing I planned on spending. We’ve underspent on staffing in terms of where I was planning on being. Our orders are slightly under where I originally planned, but are in line or ahead of plan when compared with the marketing spend.

And I watch cash flow. As a startup you’re always watching that. I manage my budgets as if they are on a shoestring.

HAVE YOU MADE adjustments since you started?

We’ve updated our pricing, we’ve updated our go-to-market strategy, and we just started turning on the marketing this week in a major way. (Petbrosia's price is about $2.99 a pound, or $1.32 for the average dog).

We’re doing marketing with Laura Powell and Q102, doing advertising on Pandora radio starting this week, working on a partnership with Deal of the Day.

We’ve beenreaching out to bloggers nationally. Our Facebook by the end of this week will be over 25,000 friends in three months. We’re very active on Pinterest, Twitter, looking at some other social media and online marketing that a traditional consumer product wouldn’t necessarily do.

TELL ME MORE about the decision to open a physical location.

Part of what I see Petbrosia being is more than just pet food, but growing to be out in the community, to be a total experience. It’s how Petbrosia helps the well being of pets and their families. And part of that inspiration was looking at other brands that have become more than a product that they serve, to be a place where people commune, learn, find opportunities. Part of my inspiration was Starbucks and what they brought to life.

(The location) touches a second demographic from our core demographics for Petbrosia. Our core demographic is what we call the e-commerce savvy passionates. They’re people who love buying things online, are not afraid of it. I thought the physical location would help us tap into those that may not be as e-commerce savvy, but just as pet-passionate. We also do a lot of consumer research, and by having a location where people can walk in, we basically can learn in real time by talking to people off the street.

HAVE THERE BEEN any surprises during your first year?

I’m the type that I try to plan out surprises. I’m pretty boring that way. I believe with proper planning things typically work. What surprised me is that capital raising is continuous at a startup. I was assuming that I’d raise capital, then focus on going to market. It’s not like that. Capital raising is still at least 50 percent of my time.

WHAT WAS IT like when you got that first order?

I said, ‘Wow, this is real!’ ” I didn’t know 100 percent at the beginning if we would get to this point, it was only through continuously pushing and setting tough goals and meeting those goals that we were able to make things happen.